France national football team players: Zidane’s 23 for Italy and Türkiye, with Mbappé back and Dembélé out

Zinedine Zidane named his second France squad on 6 November for the last two Nations League group games, away to Italy at San Siro on 12 November and at home to Türkiye in Bordeaux on 15 November. France top the group with ten points from twelve. Kylian Mbappé is back after the knee injury that sent him home in September, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Marcus Thuram and Ibrahima Konaté return, and Paris FC’s Pablo Pagis is the surprise first call-up. Ousmane Dembélé, Jules Koundé, William Saliba and Manu Koné are all missing.

This page lists the France national football team players in Zidane’s November squad, with career caps and goals correct to 5 October 2026, the night of France’s last game. It also covers how his first four matches went, who is missing and why, and what is at stake in November.

France’s current squad: Zidane’s 23 for November

Seven of the 23 who were in camp in September and October are not in this squad: Jean Butez, Jules Koundé, Maxence Lacroix, Manu Koné, Maghnes Akliouche, Ousmane Dembélé and Esteban Lepaul. The seven who come in are Robin Risser, Ibrahima Konaté, Malo Gusto, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Warren Zaïre-Emery, Marcus Thuram and Pablo Pagis. Upamecano is in the squad but suspended for the game in Milan. The final column counts appearances in the four Nations League games of September and October, so it is zero for everyone who was not in that camp.

Goalkeepers

Player	Club	Caps	Goals	Sep-Oct apps
Mike Maignan	AC Milan	51	0	3
Guillaume Restes	Toulouse	1	0	1
Robin Risser	Lens	0	0	0

Defenders

Player	Club	Caps	Goals	Sep-Oct apps
Dayot Upamecano	Bayern Munich	48	2	2
Ibrahima Konaté	Real Madrid	30	0	0
Malo Gusto	Chelsea	16	0	0
Pierre Kalulu	Juventus	5	0	2
Adrien Truffert	Bournemouth	3	0	2
Andy Diouf	Inter Milan	2	0	2
Jérémy Jacquet	Liverpool	2	0	2
Leny Yoro	Manchester United	1	0	1

Midfielders

Player	Club	Caps	Goals	Sep-Oct apps
Adrien Rabiot	AC Milan	69	7	3
Aurélien Tchouaméni	Real Madrid	50	3	0
Eduardo Camavinga	Real Madrid	33	2	4
Rayan Cherki	Manchester City	18	3	4
Warren Zaïre-Emery	Paris Saint-Germain	13	1	0
Lucas Da Cunha	Como	3	0	3

Forwards

Player	Club	Caps	Goals	Sep-Oct apps
Kylian Mbappé (c)	Real Madrid	107	67	1
Marcus Thuram	Inter Milan	35	3	0
Bradley Barcola	Liverpool	32	6	4
Michael Olise	Bayern Munich	29	11	4
Désiré Doué	Paris Saint-Germain	19	4	4
Pablo Pagis	Paris FC	0	0	0

Pagis and Robin Risser are the two uncapped players. Pagis, a Paris FC forward, is the surprise of the list; Zidane said he wanted to see him with the group and would decide on his playing time over the two matches.

Mbappé still has more goals than the rest of the squad put together

Add the four tables up and the 23 have 567 caps and 109 goals between them. Mbappé has 67 of those goals. The other 22 players have 42, so the captain alone accounts for 61 per cent of the squad’s international scoring. Across the World Cup 26 the figure was 55 per cent.

His goal in Izmit on 25 September was his 67th for France, and it came in his 107th match. He had passed Olivier Giroud’s national record of 57 at the World Cup in June, and nobody else is close: Giroud, Thierry Henry and Antoine Griezmann are all retired from international football. With Dembélé injured, the next highest scorer in this squad is Olise on 11.

The other end of the table is where Zidane’s changes show. Eight of the 23 have fewer than five caps, and 12 have never scored for France.

How Zidane’s first four games went

Date	Fixture	Result	France scorers
25 September	Türkiye v France, Izmit	Won 1-0	Mbappé
28 September	Belgium v France, Brussels	Won 1-0	Olise
2 October	France v Italy, Saint-Denis	Drew 1-1	Olise
5 October	France v Belgium, Saint-Denis	Won 4-1	Doué, Cherki, Olise 2

Mbappé scored early in the second half at the Kocaeli Stadium and was off minutes later with a left-knee injury. He left the camp and the federation did not replace him. Dembélé, whom Zidane calls his vice-captain, took the armband.

In Brussels three days later Zidane changed nine of his starting eleven. Andy Diouf, Jérémy Jacquet and Lucas Da Cunha all made their debuts from the start, and Olise, on as a 77th-minute substitute, scored the winner with two minutes left.

The first home game was the only one France did not win. Olise put them ahead from a free kick, Alessandro Bastoni equalised for Italy and Upamecano was sent off with five minutes left, which ruled him out of the Belgium return.

That return was the strangest of the four. Belgium led at the Stade de France from the 35th minute, and Guillaume Restes, making his debut in goal, was beaten by Dodi Lukébakio. Then France scored four times from the 77th minute, and all four came from players who had started on the bench.

Two numbers come out of that run. Olise scored four of France’s seven goals in the window, which took him from seven international goals to 11 in four appearances. And five of the seven came from substitutes, which says as much about how deep Zidane’s forward options are as it does about his starting line-ups.

The six debutants

Player	Position	Club	Debut
Esteban Lepaul	Forward	Rennes	25 Sep v Türkiye
Andy Diouf	Defender	Inter Milan	28 Sep v Belgium
Jérémy Jacquet	Defender	Liverpool	28 Sep v Belgium
Lucas Da Cunha	Midfielder	Como	28 Sep v Belgium
Guillaume Restes	Goalkeeper	Toulouse	5 Oct v Belgium
Leny Yoro	Defender	Manchester United	5 Oct v Belgium

Lepaul was Ligue 1’s top scorer last season with 21 goals and came on for the last minutes in Izmit. Yoro had not been in the original squad at all. He was at Clairefontaine with the under-21s when Konaté sprained his knee in training, and he was called across for his first senior squad.

Who is missing, and why

For November, franceinfo reports that Dembélé and Esteban Lepaul are injured, and that Saliba, Koné, Koundé and Maxence Lacroix are out with injuries or still recovering from them. Maghnes Akliouche was hurt at the last minute and was not called up. Tchouaméni, left out of the first camp while he recovered, is back.

Of the World Cup squad that Didier Deschamps took to North America, N’Golo Kanté, Lucas Hernandez, Theo Hernandez, Lucas Digne and Brice Samba have not been picked by Zidane in either window. Malo Gusto, who was not picked in September, is back.

Kanté is the one people ask about. L’Équipe reported in July that he would announce his international retirement after the World Cup, but no announcement has followed. Zidane settled it from the other side when he named his squad. “I didn’t call him. It’s my choice,” he said. “He’s 35 years old; I have four years at the head of this team.”

France’s Nations League group, and what comes next

Team	P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
France	4	3	1	0	+5	10
Italy	4	2	1	1	+3	7
Belgium	4	2	0	2	+1	6
Türkiye	4	0	0	4	-9	0

League A Group 1 finishes in November. France go to Italy at San Siro on 12 November and finish against Türkiye in Bordeaux on 15 November, and both games kick off at 20:45 local time, 01:15 IST the following morning. France are not yet sure of a quarter-final place, because Belgium and Italy can both still overtake them.

How France’s 2026 World Cup finished

France won their first six matches at the World Cup. Spain ended it in the semi-final, 2-0, and then England beat them 6-4 in the third-place match in Miami Gardens after leading 4-0 at half-time. Fourth place was the end of the Deschamps era. Mbappé finished the tournament with ten goals and a second Golden Boot, and his 22 World Cup goals put him ahead of Lionel Messi as the competition’s all-time leading scorer.

Who is France’s captain?

Kylian Mbappé. He has held the armband since Hugo Lloris retired in 2023, and Zidane confirmed him as captain when he named his first squad. Ousmane Dembélé is vice-captain and led the side after Mbappé went home in September; he is injured for November.

Who is France’s head coach?

Zinedine Zidane, appointed on 28 July 2026 on a deal running to the 2030 World Cup. His record after four matches is three wins and a draw. He replaced Didier Deschamps, who led France for 14 years and won the 2018 World Cup and the 2021 Nations League.

Other national team squads

The same breakdown for the other leading nations: Spain, England, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Germany and Croatia.

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